Cleaning up after Storm Chandra flood damage in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Photograph: Dara Mac DónaillClimate change made this week’s floods almost three times more likely to occur, analysis by Maynooth University and Met Éireann has found. The researchers said the high volume of rain that fell in the seven days up to and including Storm Chandra turned the heavy but “not particularly remarkable” rainfall during the storm into a “devastating” flood event. “Storm Chandra hit the eastern Irish coast when soils were saturated and rivers high after several days of high rainfall,” they said. [ ‘No one was pumping the water’: Rathfarnham deals with Storm Chandra aftermathOpens in new window ]The attribution study then found climate change made the rainfall and flooding that followed twice as likely.

Source: The Irish Times January 30, 2026 11:02 UTC